As forecast last week, Miley Cyrus debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with her new release "Bangerz," selling 270,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Counting her soundtrack albums as the Disney character Hannah Montana, this is her fifth No. 1 album. She topped the list with the Disney Channel TV series' first soundtrack in 2006, as well as its big-screen film adaptation soundtrack in 2009. Cyrus herself notched No. 1s with the half-soundtrack/half-studio album "Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus" set in 2007, and then her own "Breakout" studio effort in 2008. Cyrus' last studio album, 2010's "Can't Be Tamed," debuted and peaked at No. 3 from a 102,000 start.
"Bangerz" is one of seven debuts in the top 10 this week.
Arriving at No. 2 is Panic! at the Disco's "Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die" with 84,000. That's up quite a bit from the starting week of its last album, 2011's "Vices & Virtues." It debuted and peaked at No. 7 with 56,000. Panic's new album matches its highest-charting set, "Pretty. Odd.," which debuted and peaked at No. 2 in 2008.
Rapper Pusha T is up next on the Billboard 200, as his new album "My Name Is My Name," bows at No. 4 with 75,000. It's his first top 10 set as a solo artist. He previously visited the region as one-half of the hip-hop duo Clipse, which hit No. 4 with 2002's "Lord Willin'."
After nearly two years away from the top 10, the "Glee" cast returns to the region, with the soundtrack to the Fox TV show's Oct. 10 episode titled "The Quarterback." The EP enters at No. 7 with 47,000. The episode dealt with the death of the character Finn Hudson and doubled as a tribute to the late actor who played him, Cory Monteith. Proceeds from the sales of the six-song EP and its tracks benefit the charity Project Limelight.
A "Glee" album was last in the top 10 on the Dec. 24, 2011, chart, when "Glee: The Music, Season 3—Volume 7" debuted and peaked at No. 9. In total, "Glee: The Quarterback" is the 14th top 10 album for the Fox TV franchise.
Rock band Korn claims its 12th top 10 album this week as "The Paradigm Shift" starts at No. 8 with 46,000. All but one of the Korn's 13 charting albums released since 1996 have reached the top 10. Only 2006's "Live & Rare" missed the region, debuting and peaking at No. 51.
The third-season winner of the NBC's "The Voice," Cassadee Pope, starts at No. 9 with her first major-label album, "Frame by Frame" (43,000). On the Top Country Albums chart, the set enters at No. 1.
Pope easily surpasses the peak position of the only other "Voice" winner to have released an album thus far: first-season champ Javier Colon. His first post-"Voice" release, "Come Through For You," debuted and peaked at No. 134 with a 10,000 start. The respective second- and fourth-season winners, Jermaine Paul and Danielle Bradbery, have yet to release their post-win efforts.
Rock band Mayday Parade lands its first top 10 album, "Monsters in the Closet," debuting at No. 10 with 30,000. It's the best sales week yet for the act, which had previously sold no more than 27,000 in a week, when 2011's self-titled album debuted and peaked at No. 12.
The band is on Fearless Records, and in turn, the label nets its second top 10 album ever—and first since 2007. Its other previous top 10 visit was when Plain White T's "Every Second Counts" also debuted (and peaked) at No. 10 on Aug. 11, 2007.
Meanwhile, last week's No. 1 album, Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience (2 of 2)" drops by 80% in its second week and falls to No. 5 with 70,000 sold. That's the largest second-week percentage decline for a No. 1-debuting album since Kanye West's "Yeezus" fell by over 81% back in late June.
Falling a spot to No. 3 this week is Drake's "Nothing Was the Same," slipping by 44% in its third week to 83,000. Lorde's "Pure Heroine" falls by 51% in its sophomore frame, dropping to No. 6 with 63,000.
Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Oct. 13) totaled 4.80 million units, up less than 1% compared with the sum last week (4.79 million) and down 6% compared with the comparable sales week of 2012 (5.1 million). Year-to-date album sales stand at 214.8 million, down 6% compared with the same total at this point last year (228.9 million).
Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2012 when: Jason Alden's "Night Train" rolled in at No. 1 with 409,000 while Brandy's "Two Eleven" started at No. 3 with 65,000. The previous week's No. 1, Mumford & Sons' "Babel," fell to No. 2 with 74,000 (down 23%).
http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...-billboard-200